While Southern Alberta has been hit with numerous storms this summer, it seems most parts of Rocky View County have been spared.
This month, Environment Canada has issued five severe thunderstorm warnings for Airdrie and surrounding areas.
Short periods of heavy rain, hail and strong winds have hit the area and it seems this is an ongoing trend for Alberta summers.
These thunderstorms have brought severe flooding that devastated Calgary, Bragg Creek, Morley, the Siksika First Nations and High River in late June.
In addition to record flooding levels, a storm devastated the town of Irricana, where homes and farms were damaged by record amounts of hail.
Recent storms had motorists pulling over off of highways and residents frantically escaping the downpour of hail. A July 18 thunderstorm caused a power outage in Beiseker.
“We’ve had one major outage north of Beiseker on July 18 from 11 p.m. and power was restored at 2:40 a.m.,” Jennifer MacGowan, director of corporate communications with FortisAlberta said.
That outage affected 545 customers, according to MacGowan.
In addition, a tornado warning for the flood-ravaged Bragg Creek area was issued July 24.
Environment Canada recorded no tornados in the area and the warning was lifted the same day.
According to The Weather Network – a national weather service that records precipitation records – the average rainfall for the month of July is 68 mm, and the single-day record for precipitation occurred July 15 1927, where 95 mm fell in one day.
Bill McMurty, meteorologist with Environment Canada, said that while it seems there has been an increased number of storms in 2013, it is not unlike last year.
Levels of rainfall nor the number of lightening strikes for the month of July were not available as of press time.
